On Nov. 5, Harvest Christian Fellowship Pastor Greg Laurie and Nfluence Church Pastor Lucas Miles discussed the spiritual parallels between the Jesus Revolution of the 1970s and the current Gen Z revival.
The conversation took place during “Freedom Night in America” at Dream City Church in Phoenix.
Laurie reflected on how today’s youth are leading a movement of renewed faith amid a culture marked by despair, addiction, and division. Laurie believes that recent national tragedies, including the murder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk, will lead to a broader spiritual awakening.
Laurie said that Kirk’s death “was like rocket fuel was poured on” a hunger for the gospel. He compared Kirk’s death to the biblical martyrdom of Stephen, suggesting that revival often follows tragedy.
Miles, who also serves as the senior director of TPUSA Faith, emphasized that revival cannot be “manufactured,” but said we can “steward it” and told Christ-followers that “it’s the easiest time in the world to do evangelism.”
“I had the privilege of coming to Christ in 1970, and I walked right into the middle of a spiritual awakening,” Laurie told Miles. “I didn’t know it was a revival, but indeed it was. And I had a front row seat. It was amazing.”
“My life was transformed,” said Laurie, “and a couple of years later, I went and planted a church. I was just one of many young men that went out and did it.”
“Now I look back in retrospect and realize that was a real work of God—and it was a youth revival. There were older folks in it, but it was largely young people. And I see parallels between now and then,” Laurie continued. “In fact, looking back in the ’70s, I think this moment in American history is closer to it than any other decade I can think of.”
“We’ve seen the decades come and go. I don’t think that the ’80s would be the parallel decade—or the ’90s or the 2000s. I think [it’s] right now, because we’re seeing another spiritual awakening among young people, and it’s significant,” he added.
Laurie said that what is unique about this particular moment is he is witnessing “young men” leading the way. Laurie described such leadership as unusual, but shared that is “exciting.”
“It’s such a unique generation with so many unique challenges, and they have the highest suicide rate of any generation in American history. They’ve been described as the hopeless generation,” said Laurie. “But God is bringing hope to the hopeless generation. And I pray it will be another full-scale spiritual awakening.”
Laurie shared the experiences he had during the Jesus Revolution in the 1970s that similar to what is now prompting a generation to seek Jesus:
I think there was a drug epidemic. And of course, we’re seeing that today, but it’s a different kind of drug epidemic with fentanyl and the many lives that are being lost. It was also sort of an unraveling—a lot of rioting in the culture, and of course, assassinations that traumatized the nation. Starting with JFK in Dallas, Texas, followed by MLK, Martin Luther King, and then of course RFK, John F. Kennedy’s brother who was running for the presidency as well. And now in modern times, I mean, we cannot ignore what has happened with Charlie Kirk. It was just such a tragic event. And I would say this—sometimes as Christians, we always want to find cause and effect. Like, well, this happened to Charlie, so this other thing would happen. I see it differently because I’m a father who lost his son 16 years ago. He was 33 years old and died in an automobile accident. I’ll always look at that, Lucas, as the worst day of my life. I’ll always look at that as a horrible tragedy. And I know he’s in heaven, and I know I’ll see him again. Having said that, I still saw things that have come out of it in my life that God has used for his glory.
